THE FLATS – The Georgia Tech swimming and diving teams finished second overall in the Dual Meet Tournament after its defeat to No. 17/19 Auburn in the championship meet on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers took wins in the 200 free relays to open the contest before Vivien Rothwell and Ricky Balduccini stepped up in the 100 back events. Rothwell’s time of 52.63 is the second-fastest program time, only beaten out by her own program record mark. Balduccini set his fastest time at 46.46 to win the race and strengthen his hold of fourth all-time in the Tech record book.
Balduccini’s race win started a five-race win streak for the men’s squad as Balduccini complimented his 100 back win with an 100 free event victory at 42.54. Sophomore Berk Ertürk won two races during the stretch, securing victories in the 200 fly and 500 free to bring his race victory tally to three on the weekend.
Freshmen Meriç Uygun and Kerem İlyem once again showed out in the breaststroke events, sweeping the 200 breast events for a second consecutive day. İlyem hit the wall at 1:53.11, improving on his time from yesterday and remains third overall on the Tech leaderboard. Uygun set top-three program times in the 200 breast and 200 IM once again, her times improving from 2:09.53 in the breast event and 1:59.12 in the IM.
Tech won eight events on the men’s side, propelled by senior Max Fowler on the boards. He claimed victories on both the 1m and 3m boards after another dominant weekend. Fowler won five of the six diving sessions over the three meets, sweeping all three 3m sessions. Auburn won all 11 events on the women’s side to push the overall final score to 462-324.
The Tech men announced themselves in a big way, winning all three dual meets in their home pool. The men secured two ranked wins over No. 17 Auburn and No. 23 Florida State, winning 22 events over three meets to complete a strong weekend.
Yellow Jackets remain home to complete a three-week homestand with its annual Alumni Meet next Saturday at 9 a.m. before hosting Boston College and East Carolina in a tri-meet event on October 31 at 11 a.m.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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